Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein joined the Labor leadership war today, urging "ordinary people" to back her husband in the campaign against Julia Gillard.

Mr Rudd consistently outpolls Ms Gillard as preferred Labor leader but has been savagely criticised by Labor ministers who worked closely with him as prime minister for having a chaotic and dysfunctional leadership style.

Speaking at a snap Washington DC press conference, just before getting on a plane to return to Australia this morning, Mr Rudd sought to enlist "people's power" to persuade Labor MPs to back him in the leadership tussle.

"When this comes to a head it really does need to be recognised that the future government of Australia is not about the power of factions, it's about people's power, and the people of Australia have a view on the future leadership of their country," he said.

"I would urge each and every one of them to make that view known across the country - pick up the phone, talk to MPs, talk to your media outlets, express your view.

"Ours is a democracy, in the open spaces, not behind closed doors and not governed by faceless men."

The most recent Newspoll showed 57 per cent of those polled preferred Mr Rudd as Labor leader to Ms Gillard's 24 per cent.

Therese Rein, speaking to Channel Nine, said voters preferred Mr Rudd to Ms Gillard and called upon the public to kick start a grassroots campaign in support of the former PM.

She urged voters to call their local Labor MPs and senators to tell them who they preferred as Labor leader.

''Sometimes I feel like there's two kinds of Australia," she said.

"What happens in Canberra and what happens in the street ... just ordinary people.

"And what ordinary people tell me is that they trust Kevin, and they respect him, and they know how hard he worked after the 2007 election and the lead-up. They know how hard he worked during the global financial crisis, they know he’s committed, they know he's worked hard as foreign minister and tried to do the very best he could do.

''And I think it's useful for people to tell their local MP if that’s a Labor MP and to tell their local Labor senator 'look, this is what I want. This is what I want you to hear me, and this is what I want'.''

Ms Rein also stopped short of saying whether Mr Rudd would challenge for the Labor leadership but said she looked forward to his return.

''I think he has loved serving the Australian people," she said.

"He's loved serving the Australian people as prime minister, he's loved doing that as foreign minister, he's done the very best that he can and I'm looking forward to him coming home and we'll have a chat.

"That will be nice."

Ms Rein also expressed her concerns about the personal attacks on Mr Rudd from cabinet ministers.

''I think it's been very unhelpful ... the Australian people are sick of seeing this kind of undermining and negative backgrounding about him and that’s just gone on and on, but I think he's been strong and courageous and he’s stayed true to himself and I think that’s a wonderful thing.''